Is it hard to be accepted as an apprentice at The Company?

That’s an interesting question. The short answer is kind of, but not really.

Sometimes you might hear about how we only have up to twelve apprentices at a time and think that it’s really hard to get into The Company’s apprenticeship.

Well, we’re really looking for three things:

1. You’re all-in for Jesus. You don’t have to be a perfect Christian or know the answers to all of the Bible questions. But you’ve fully decided that you want to do things God’s way, even if you’re not 100% sure what that means yet.
2. You definitely want to be a professional writer. Not like you think it’s fun to write or your parents are pressuring you to do something, so why not writing? But you know that you just have to write and you’ll do whatever it takes to get there.
3. You really want to be here.

#1 and #2 are pretty easy, and you probably already know the answer about yourself.

You probably have a good idea about #3, but the only way for us to know for sure is for us to talk.

Here’s the thing: when you go to a regular college, if you don’t like your professor for a particular course, you just put up with it for a couple months and then don’t schedule any more of that professor’s classes.

That’s not how it works here. I lead you every day. For two years. If you don’t like me, neither one of us is going to be very happy. And two years could feel like a really long time.

And it’s not a high standard, I’m pretty easy to get along with. But we just have to meet. We’ll talk about our families and how you grew up and what you like to do for fun. We’ll look at some of your writing and talk about the kinds of things that might help you to improve and what kinds of things you find frustrating. Then you can decide if I’m more funny or obnoxious and if you can put up with me for two years.

We’re also going to look at your writing together. Your writing doesn’t need to be perfect, you’re coming to a school to learn to write better. But we want to make sure that you understand the gap between where you are and where your work needs to be, and you’re ready and capable (with guidance) of doing the hard work to get it there.

You know how much you love Jesus and how serious you are about writing. If you’re checking those boxes, you’re in really good shape. The third thing is something we decide together.

And really…what can you do but apply? Take a risk and see what happens.

Worst case scenario: You “waste” about an hour filling out the application and another 45 minutes in a Zoom meeting with me.

Best case scenario: The next two years of your life are a super fun adventure and you become a professional writer.

I might be biased, but I’ll take that gamble every single day.